Miscellaneous questions about graphics and draw distance

[Hollywood]

I have read and heard people speak of using Anti-aliasing, anisotropic filtering and etc, but I have yet to reproduce such results on two separate computers.

To my understanding, the client is simply too old technology wise to make use of these features.


Additionally, the in-game view distance slider is maxed, however the EQclient.ini has it at a value of '20'
Is this the case for everyone else? I have modified it to 100 and put the file on read only to stop it resetting however in-game things look the same.

I am not experiencing any particular draw distance issues(unless it's raining/fog of course), however I do notice that the far distance likes to pop and draw quite often. Was the original client like this, did it always draw on the go?

[zenqlaugh]

I'm still working on the view distance but I have successfully pimped out the graphics with some pretty high antialiasing and anisotropic filtering. I have an nvidia card and I set the program-specific (EQ) profile to override the game's settings. It worked flawlessly and with the shadows enabled in-game, it's looking pretty good!

[warpatch]

Zen, care to elaborate?

[monkeydoc]

I would love to be able to crank the draw distance. Given the ridiculous overkill that is a modern PC running EQ, I imagine you could handle some beautiful views.

[Hollywood]

UPDATE:

Seems that driver level adjustments like AA, AF and etc, only work in full screen mode the first time. Once you have them set, you can exit the game and restart as windowed mode and the features stay. This shouldn't be, but seems to be!

[doacleric]

Maximum draw distance is set by the server based on the zone. Some zones have farther draw distances than others. There is nothing you can do to increase the draw distance beyond the maximum set by the server.

[Toodles]

Maximum draw distance is set by the server based on the zone. Some zones have farther draw distances than others. There is nothing you can do to increase the draw distance beyond the maximum set by the server.

Thanks for that, I never knew it was setup that way.

Though given how powerful the computers are now, in regards to the requirements of the client; is there any reason why these aren't set higher?

Even in the zones with further viewing distance, it's not that far - you still get lots of drawing, especially when you pan the camera.

I am curious as to why this hasn't been risen a lot by the devs.

[Toodles]

And the devs run /manage the server. What point are you making by quoting that?

[Jetlag]

Though given how powerful the computers are now, in regards to the requirements of the client; is there any reason why these aren't set higher?

It would increase server load by orders of magnitude.

[dafier]

Maximum draw distance is set by the server based on the zone. Some zones have farther draw distances than others. There is nothing you can do to increase the draw distance beyond the maximum set by the server.

Yes....you can draw beyond the maximum. You shouldn't though because it's violating ToS. Your system (client side) doesn't check the server for everything. Hence why you can manipulate ....anyway.

You might get some 'settings' sent to your client by the server, but that doesn't mean it can't be changed.

[Zaela]

It would increase server load by orders of magnitude.

Wouldn't affect the server at all. Server has no idea how much you are drawing. The client already knows about the positions of every mob at all times and all that, no more serverside processing than is already done all the time.

[Wisteso]

Wouldn't affect the server at all. Server has no idea how much you are drawing. The client already knows about the positions of every mob at all times and all that, no more serverside processing than is already done all the time.

It would if the server was sending more mob updates, but yeah Zaela is right. The server wont send you anything additional for a higher draw distance. You just wont see any mobs at the farther areas.

[Toodles]

So...does it actually work? Because I do feel agitated by the constant 'curved' shape distance drawing of the world. Is this more of a problem with how the game is designed?

I tried manually setting it and noticed no change.